Wednesday, October 08, 2014

America’s war without end

Endless war.

It’s no longer a nightmare scenario created by some doomsday
futurist, but accepted policy among America’s political elites. In his latest
article in The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald points out that it’s not merely
blowhard pro-military Republicans who support the never-ending war strategy against
terrorism, but many top Democrats as well, like Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta
and, of course, Obama. Endless war is the one area where the President can
claim a bipartisan victory.

Money, notes Greenwald, is a major force behind our
government’s perpetual war mentality, as military contractors reap billions in
profits spilling blood in the sand. I also think that the situation we have
created is like a poker game with no limits, forcing players to keep raising
their bets. We need oil, terrorists live in areas where there is oil, we bomb
the terrorists and innocent civilians, the people who survive our bombing
become angry, more terrorists are created, we need oil…

As many others have pointed out, you can’t kill an idea with
a bomb. As long as we continue doing what we’re doing, there will be new
generations of terrorists seeking revenge against the West. Obama had his
chance to break this insidious cycle, but for reasons we can only guess at,
threw in the towel early on and surrendered to the political and profiteer’s voices
calling for eternal war.

This is what America has become, a war mongering imperial
power that keeps its citizens in constant fear, which allows it to both attack
and replenish its enemies.